The initiation about creating a LGBT organization is from long time ago. But this May 2012, we had finally managed to get together and to make this big move for the LGBT community in Macedonia.
Our association is non-governmental, non-profit and multiethnic, so most of us the LGBT, are people from different ethnical, religious, social and educational background.
We are from different cities in Macedonia, mostly students who are from Macedonia and some of them are from Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. Our members are from different ethnicities such as Macedonians, Albanians, Serbians, Turks, Roma and others. We gathered together for sole purpose for which only together as one, merged for the clause, we can accomplish a lot when it comes to basic human rights. And just as an organization we can achieve e a lot in this field.
We decided to establish our association because of the urgent need of LGBT activism in our country. As you probably know the LGBT issue in Macedonia practically does not exist and the LGBT community is faced with discrimination, violence and invisibility on each level.
Our goals are:
• Implementation and full enjoyment of the human rights for LGBT and fight against the discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity
• Awareness rising about the rights of LGBT people as human rights
• Advocacy and lobbing about the LGBT issues for changing the present national legislation
• Improvement of the sexual health by prevention on HIV/ AIDS and other STD among the LGBT population
A few days before IDAHO, at the stone bridge, we have printed “ Say NO to HOMOPHOBIA”, and few of us stood there a few hours. We have continued with this activity the same day at the entrance of the old bazaar with the same massages. The following next days, we have repeated this activity at the center of Tetovo, Gostivar and Kichevo. It is worth to be mentioned that we had a positive experience about direct contact with the people and many positive and negative comments, but we have finished these activities without any problems. At 16th and 17th May, in Tetovo, Skopje and Gostivar, we had the same activity with the message “say NO to HOMOPHOBIA” but this time the message was printed in 4 different languages, and we have let off the helium balloons in the sky which were in the color of the rainbow. This kind of balloons were attached in the several location in Skopje.